Hair dryer nozzles

ABSTRACT

A nozzle for a hair dryer having a cylindrical barrel terminating in a circular output port. The nozzle includes a cylindrical section for frictionally engaging the output port end of the barrel, and a fluid accelerating section having an oblong opening for providing a flat main stream of air. The accelerating section includes a pair of arcuate surfaces which extend from the cylindrical section and define the long sides of the oblong opening. The arcuate surfaces include slots for providing auxiliary streams of air substantially parallel to the main stream. In one embodiment louver boards extend over the slots for directing the auxiliary streams.

United States Patent 1 Orsoff [4 Sept. 24, 1974 HAIR DRYER NOZZLES [75] Inventor: Eli0rsoff,Selden,N.Y.

[73] Assignee: Continental Hair Products, Inc.,

Brooklyn, NY.

[22] Filed: Oct. 11, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 405,361

[52] U.S. C1 239/289, 239/135, 239/556,'

[51] Int. Cl. B05b' 1/24, B05b 1/14, A45d 20/12 [58] Field of Search 239/128, 135, 139, 289, 239/291, 299, 419.5, 425, 428.5, 548, 556,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 759,541 5/1904 Montgomerie et a1. 239/592 981,011 1/1911 Schuchardt 239/556 X 2,514,528 7/1950 Wahl 34/97 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 851,012 9/1939 France 181/72 613,230 11/1948 Great Britain ..34/97 Primary Examiner-Robert s. Ward, Jr. I Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Breitenfeld & Levine 57 ABSTRACT A nozzle for a hair dryer having a cylindrical barrel terminating in a circular output port. The nozzle includes a cylindricalsection for frictionally engaging the output port end of the barrel, and a fluid accelerating section having an oblong opening for providing a flat main stream of air. The accelerating section includes a pair of arcuate surfaces which extend from the cylindrical section and define the long sides of the oblong opening. The arcuate surfaces include slots for providing auxiliary streams of air substantially parallel to the main stream. In one embodiment louver boards extend over the slots for directing the auxiliary streams. Y

l0 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures 1 HAIR DRYER NOZZLES The subject invention relates to nozzles for portable electric hair dryers.

Portable electric hair dryers such as are used by beauticians or hair stylists generally include a pistolgrip handle by which the hair dryer is held, an electric air pump or fan, a heater for heating the air provided by the air pump, and a barrel terminating in an exit port through which the heated air leaves the hair dryer. Often a fishtail nozzle is slipped over the exit port end of the barrel by stylists or beauticians for providing a wide but thin stream of air having a high velocity, such a stream being highly desirable for styling purposes. However, the use of such a nozzle offers resistence to air flow through the barrel thereby creating a back pressure in the hair dryer. The result is a reduction in the flow rate of air flowing past the heating element of the heater, thereby increasing the operating temperature of the heating element and other internal parts of the dryer and reducing their useful life.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a nozzle for a hair dryer which provides a number of thin streams of air without increasing the back pressure inside the hair dryer thereby extending the useful life of the heating element of the hair dryer as a whole.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a nozzle for a hair dryer which provides a number of wide but thin streams of air flowing in the same general direction. The latter permits a stylist or beautician to control the direction in which all of the heated air is flowing. This is significant, because if the streams were to be, for example, omni-direction, the use of one stream of hot air for styling could inadvertently cause another hot air stream to burn the stylist or the person whose hair is being styled.

By way of summary, the invention provides a nozzle for assembly with a hair dryer having an output port through which pumped heated air is expelled. The nozzle comprises a coupling section for engaging the barrel of the hair dryer at its output port end, and a fluid accelerating section extending from the coupling section, the section having an oblong opening for providing from the expelled air a main stream of air having a velocity which is greater than the velocity of the expelled air and at least two slots parallel to the oblong opening for providing auxiliary streams of air.

The foregoing and other objects and features of the invention are incorporated in examples now to be described with reference to the accompanying drawings,

in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a hair dryer having a nozzle according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial top plan view of the hair dryer showing the nozzle in greater detail;

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of the nozzle;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional viewtaken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of another embodiment of the nozzle according to the invention;

FIG. 6 is a front view of the nozzle shown in FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the nozzle taken along line 77 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 1 shows a nozzle 10, according to the invention, mounted on a portable hair dryer 11. Hair dryer 11 is of the conventional type which houses an electrically driven air pump (not shown) and a heating element (not shown) for providing a hot stream of air at a circular output port 12. Output port 12 is, in this example, at the end of a cylindrical barrel 13 through which air is forced to travel by the pump. Thus, when the hair dryer is turned on air at room temperature is sucked into the dryer housing through holes 14 and hot air is discharged at the output port 12 with an initial velocity parallel to the longitudinal axis of the barrel 13. Furthermore, the stream of air leaving port 12 is cylindrical, since this is the shape of the interior of the barrel and port.

Nozzle 10 may be, for example, a unitary structure having a coupling section 15, and a fluid accelerating section 16 extending axially away from the coupling section. In this example, coupling section 15 is cylindrical so as to be frictionally engageable with the output port end of barrel 13. As shown in FIGS. 14, the accelerating section 16 defines an oblong opening 17 which is perpendicular to the axis of the coupling section and is symmetrically located with respect to that axis, The area defined by the oblong opening 17 is smaller than the area of the output port 12 and, when the nozzle 10 is engaged with the output port and the hair dryer is turned-on, the velocity of the air leaving the oblong opening is greater than the velocity of the air as it passes through the output port. Moreover, it should be noted that, in addition to accelerating the air provided by the hair dryer, the nozzle converts the cylindrical stream of air flowing from the dryer into thin streams of air which are particularly useful for hair styling.

Accelerating section 16 also includes a pair of arcuate sections 19 and '20 which extend from diametrically opposed points on the coupling section 15 and converge to define the long sides of the oblong opening 17. Arcuate section 19 includes a pair of slots 21 and 22, which extend in directions parallel to the oblong opening 17, and a pair of louver boards 23 and 24 arranged over the slots 21 and 22, respectively. Louver board 23 extends from the long edge of the slot 21 which is closest to the coupling section 15 and louver board 24 extends from the edge of the slot 22 which is closest to the coupling section. Similarly, arcuate section 20 includes a pair of slots 27 and 28 which extend in directions parallel to the oblong opening 17, and a pair of louver boards 29 and 30 arranged over the slots 29 and 30, respectively. Louver board 29 extends from the long edge of slot 27 closest to the coupling section and louver board 30 extends from the long edge of the slot 28 closest to the coupling section. Thus, when the nozzle 10 is engaged with the hair dryer l1, and the hair dryer is turned on, streams of air are created by the slots and louver boards. The effective area provided by each of the slots 21, 22, 27, 28 for air flow is smaller than the area of the oblong opening. As a result, the air flowing through the oblong opening provides a main stream and the slots 21, 22, 27, 28 provide auxiliary streams. It will be appreciated that the auxiliary streams are all flat and in planes parallel to the plane of the flat main stream. Louver boards 23, 24, 29, and 30 insure that the streams of air leaving their respective slots flow parallel to the axial direction of barrel 13, as indicated by the arrows in FIG. 4. The air flow thus created is useful for styling hair. Moreover, slots 21, 22, 27, and 28 provide additional outlets through which air from the dryer can leave the nozzle. Therefore, the flow of air through the slots prevents excessive back pressure buildup in te dryer, thereby preventing overheating of the dryer parts and extending the useful life of the dryer.

The entire nozzle may be formed as a single molded plastic element.

When a hair dryer, such as shown in FIG. 1, is capable of providing at its output port a high velocity flow of air, the louver boards shown in FIGS. 1-4 may be dispensed with and a nozzle 40 for the hair dryer may be manufactured as shown in FIGS. 5-7. More specifically, nozzle 40 includes a coupling section 41 which is cylindrical so as to be frictionally engageable with the output port end of barrel 13 of the hair dryer, and a fluid accelerating section 42 extending axially away from the coupling section. As shown in FIGS. 5-7, the accelerating section 42 defines an oblong opening 43 which is perpendicular to the axis of the coupling section and is symmetrically located with respect to that axis.

Accelerating section 42 also includes a pair of arcuate sections 45 and 46 which extend from diametrically opposed points on coupling section 41 and converge to define the long sides of oblong opening 43. Arcuate section 45 includes three slots 48, 49 and 50 which are parallel to the oblong opening 43, and arcuate section 46 includes three slots 51, 52, 53 which are also parallel to the oblong opening 43. Since, as shown in FIG. 7, the arcuate sections have thin cross sections the slots may be milled into the arcuate sections or, if desired, the nozzle may be molded with the slots. Preferably, the ribs 54-57 between the slots have substantially triangular cross-sectional shapes as shown so as to prevent turbulence when, as described below, air exits through the slots.

Since air is provided by the hair dryer with an initial velocity, air exits through the slots 48-50 and 51-53 in thin streams having an axial velocity. As with nozzle 10, the streamsthus provided travel with the main stream and are useful for hair drying and styling. Significantly, the arrangement of slots prevents pressure buildup in the hair dryer which would otherwise limit the useful life of the heating element and other parts in the hair dryer.

From the foregoing it may be seen that the oblong opening 17 or 43 can be rectangular and that the arcuate sections of the accelerating section can be flat or can have any other shape capable of supporting slots extending in a direction transverse to air being expelled from the output port 12 of a hair dryer. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the description herein of preferred embodiments according to the invention have been set forth as examples thereof and are not to be construed or interpreted as limitations on the claims which follow and define the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A nozzle for an electric hair dryer having a barrel terminating in an output port through which pumped heated air is expelled, comprising:

a coupling section for engaging the output port end of the hair dryer barrel; and

a fluid accelerating section extending from the coupling section, said section having an oblong opening for providing from the expelled air a flat main stream of air and at least two slots for providing auxiliary streams of air.

2. A nozzle as defined in claim 1 wherein the oblong opening and slots extend in directions transverse to iongitudinal axis of the dryer barrel.

3. A nozzle as defined in claim 1 wherein said slots and oblong opening are all parallel.

4. A nozzle as defined in claim 3 wherein said nozzle includes at least four of said slots in addition to said oblong opening.

5. A nozzle as defined in claim 1 wherein the accelerating section further includes at least two louver boards, each of the louver boards cooperating with a different one of the slots for directing the air exiting through the slots in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the dryer barrel.

6. A nozzle as defined in claim 5 wherein said louver boards extend forwardly from said fluid accelerating section in a direction parallel to the dryer barrel, each louver board completely overlying its respective slot.

7. A nozzle as defined in claim 1 wherein said fluid accelerating section includes a pair of converging sec tions extending from the coupling section for providing the long sides of the oblong opening, each of the converging sections having at least one of the slots.

8. A nozzle as defined in claim 7 wherein at least one of the converging sections includes two parallel slots defining a rib between the slots, said rib having one of its surfaces parallel to the direction of flow of the main stream.

9. A nozzle as defined in claim 8 wherein each of the converging sections is arcuate.

10. A nozzle as defined in claim 8 wherein said rib extends forwardly in the direction of the flow of the main stream, thereby defining a louver board. 

1. A nozzle for an electric hair dryer having a barrel terminating in an output port through which pumped heated air is expelled, comprising: a coupling section for engaging the output port end of the hair dryer barrel; and a fluid accelerating section extending from the coupling section, said section having an oblong opening for providing from the expelled air a flat main stream of air and at least two slots for providing auxiliary streams of air.
 2. A nozzle as defined in claim 1 wherein the oblong opening and slots extend in directions transverse to longitudinal axis of the dryer barrel.
 3. A nozzle as defined in claim 1 wherein said slots and oblong opening are all parallel.
 4. A nozzle as defined in claim 3 wherein said nozzle includes at least four of said slots in addition to said oblong opening.
 5. A nozzle as defined in claim 1 wherein the accelerating section further includes at least two louver boards, each of the louver boards cooperating with a dIfferent one of the slots for directing the air exiting through the slots in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the dryer barrel.
 6. A nozzle as defined in claim 5 wherein said louver boards extend forwardly from said fluid accelerating section in a direction parallel to the dryer barrel, each louver board completely overlying its respective slot.
 7. A nozzle as defined in claim 1 wherein said fluid accelerating section includes a pair of converging sections extending from the coupling section for providing the long sides of the oblong opening, each of the converging sections having at least one of the slots.
 8. A nozzle as defined in claim 7 wherein at least one of the converging sections includes two parallel slots defining a rib between the slots, said rib having one of its surfaces parallel to the direction of flow of the main stream.
 9. A nozzle as defined in claim 8 wherein each of the converging sections is arcuate.
 10. A nozzle as defined in claim 8 wherein said rib extends forwardly in the direction of the flow of the main stream, thereby defining a louver board. 